'Star Wars Uncut' online & excellent

Modern fan films are special children of the Internet, powered by thousands of people creatively collaborating and sharing because of their love of a special subject. Like "Star Wars."

And the recently released "Star Wars: Uncut" project, which is the fruit of more than two years worth of work, is available for your viewing pleasure.

"Star Wars: Uncut" is crowd-sourced fan film transforming "Star Wars: A New Hope." By splicing together selected 15-second clips filmed by fans worldwide, the Uncut organizers have created something wildly unique yet familiar at the same time. The feature-length film, available on YouTube, runs more than two hours long and includes scenes crafted from techniques including stop-motion animation with action figures, computer-generated images and costumed live-action antics.

"Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted," the Uncut staff writes in its YouTube post. "Within just a few months SWU grew into a wild success. The creativity that poured into the project was unimaginable."

The producers note that although their effort has been featured in documentaries and conferences for years, the feature release last week is the culmination of all that effort. And they suggest over their Twitter feed that viewers watch "Uncut" and the original "A New Hope" side by side for maximum nostalgia.